The  American 
Negro:  His 
Past  and  Future 


• G • 

i 


The  American  Negro 

HIS  PAST  AND  FUTURE 


BY 

P.  B.  BARRINGER,  M.D.,  LL.D. 

OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF 
VIRGINIA 


(THIR.D  EDITION) 


Copies  of  this  address  may  be  obtained  for  20  cents  each  at 
Anderson  Bros.  (Booksellers).  Charlottesville,  Va. 


RAEEIGH,  N.  C. 

Edwards  & Broughton,  Printers  and  Binders 
1900 


Introductory  Note. 


After  the  preliminary  meeting  of  the  Tri-State  Medical  Society  at 
Virginia  Beach,  Dr.  P.  B.  Barringer,  of  the  University  of  Virginia, 
was  requested  by  the  acting  secretary  to  prepare  for  the  organization 
meeting  of  this  Society  to  be  held  at  Charlotte,  N.  C.,  a short  talk  on 
the  raison  d’etre  for  a new  medical  society  in  the  South. 

In  this  address  Dr.  Barringer  took  the  position  that  if  this  was  to  be 
conducted  as  other  societies,  there  was  no  need  for  a new  society,  as  there 
were  societies  in  abundance  already  in  existence  which  devoted  them- 
selves to  the  general  needs  of  the  profession,  and  that  if  another  society 
was  organized  it  should  he  based  upon  new  lines.  He  suggested  that 
the  entire  first  day  of  each  meeting  of  this  new  society  should  be 
devoted  to  some  subject  of  broad  general  interest  to  the  profession, 
such  as  the  negro  problem  now  facing  the  South,  race  mortality,  ine- 
briety, etc.  This  suggestion  was  well  received  and  the  negro  problem 
was  chosen  as  the  subject  for  discussion  at  the  next-  meeting  at  Charles- 
ton, S.  C.,  and  Dr.  Barringer  appointed  leader  of  debate  with  the 
request  that  he  bring  in  a paper  on  the  influence  of  heredity  upon  the 
negro.  Many  papers  on  the  negro  were  read  at  this  Charleston  meeting 
and  the  subject  freely  discussed.  By  the  unanimous  vote  of  the  Society 
it  was  ordered  that  the  papers  of  Dr.  P.  B.  Barringer  and  Dr.  S.  C. 
Baker  should  be  printed  and  sent  to  all  the  medical  societies  in  the  South 
with  the  recommendation  that  they  seriously  consider  the  facts  therein 
set  forth.  Paulus  A.  Irving, 

Secretary  Tri-State  Medical  Society. 


The  American  Negro,  His  Past  and  Future.* 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Tri-State  Medical  Association: 

In  the  early  part  of  this  century,  when  the  cholera  appeared  in  Edin- 
burg, the  good  people  of  that  city  wrote  in  alarm  to  the  then  Prime  Min- 
ister, Lord  Palmerston,  an  Edinburg  man,  asking  that  he  appoint  a day 
of  national  fasting  and  prayer.  To  this  the  Premier  replied,  saying: 
“The  Master  of  this  Universe  has  appointed  certain  laws  of  nature  for 
this  planet  on  which  we  live,  and  the  weal  or  woe  of  mankind  depends 
upon  the  proper  observance  of  these  laws.”  To  the  people  of  the  South, 
alarmed  by  the  rapid  increase  of  the  negro  and  his  relatively  greater 
increase  in  crime,  I recommend  these  words.  The  weal  or  woe  of  this 
people  depends  largely  upon  the  promptitude  with  which  they  turn  their 
faces  from  looking  after  external  sources  of  help  and  apply  themselves 
to  the  problem  at  hand. 

Sociological  problems  are  in  most  cases  biological  problems  and  while 
the  whole  history  of  man  is  relatively  short  from  the  standpoint  of 
records,  it  is  infinitely  long  from  the  standpoint  of  biological  data,  and 
the  one  is  just  as  valuable  in  guiding  human  reason  as  the  other.  There 
is  a short,  crisp  biological  axiom  which  reads  “the  ontogeny  is  the  repe- 
tition of  the  phylogeny.”  This  axiom  literally  translated,  means,  “the 
life  history  is  the  repetition  of  the  race  history freely  interpreted  it 
means  that  the  life  history  of  any  individual,  of  any  type,  unless  modi- 
fied by  forces  of  an  exceptional  character,  will  tend  to  conform  to  the 
lines  of  ancestral  traits.  This,  you  will  observe,  is  but  the  expression 
of  the  conservative  force  in  nature,  as  opposed  to  the  modifying 
influences  of  environment.  In  other  words,  it  is  a terse  expression  of 
the  existence  of  the  force  we  call  “heredity”  in  life. 

The  lay  idea  of  heredity  is,  however,  a very  vague  and  uncertain 
quantity.  The  term  is  sometimes  made  use  of  to  even  up  scores  on  “Old 
Adam”  when  other  reasons  for  the  occasional  lapses  of  preachers’  sons 
are  not  at  hand,  but  very  few  really  appreciate  the  principles  involved. 
The  above  axiom  covers  more  than  simple  heredity,  as  we  shall  see.  It 
takes  an  individual  from  the  fertilized  ovum  to  the  grave,  and  declares 
that  throughout  all  this  period  the  child  shall  tread  the  path  his  fathers 
trod ; and  this  tendency  to  repeat  is  not  only  structural,  but  physiologi- 
cal and  psychic  as  well.  As  this  paper  may  have  some  lay  readers,  I 

* Address  delivered  bv  Dr.  Paul  B.  Barringer,  Chairman  of  the  Faculty  of  the 
University  of  Virginia,  in  Charleston.  S.  C.,  February  20,  1900,  before  the  Tri-State 
Medical  Association  of  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas. 


4 


will  briefly  illustrate;  if  we  study  the  embryonic  development  of  any 
higher  organism  we  will  see  repeated  in  the  process  the  various  stages 
of  the  developmental  history  of  that  type.  Man  himself,  in  the  embyonie 
stage,  taking  the  heart  as  an  example,  presents  in  order  the  simple  tubu- 
lar heart  of  the  mollusk,  the  branchial  arches  of  the  amphibian,  the 
analogue  of  the  tripartite  heart  of  the  reptile,  and  last,  the  four  cham- 
bered organ  of  the  mammal.  So  with  the  other  organs. 

In  equal  manner  we  see  in  the  postembryonic  life  of  any  individual 
the  same  tendency  to  repeat  ancestral  history.  The  earlier  primitive 
deer  was  a spotted  animal.  The  European  fallow  deer  is  now  among 
the  few  members  of  this  family  retaining  the  original  colors,  but,  under 
the  law,  the  young  of  all  this  family  must  sport  the  ancestral  colors,  if 
but  for  a time,  and  hence  the  spotted  fawn.  Among  the  giant  cats,  the 
leopard  is  the  oldest  type,  and  when  change  of  environment  developed 
in  the  lion  and  in  the  American  puma,  or  panther,  solid  colors,  the 
young  still  present  the  spots  of  the  primitive  type.  As  with  the  skin, 
so  with  the  body.  In  illustration  of  the  same  law,  I will  also  now 
briefly  refer  to  habits.  Let  us  take  an  animal  familiar  to  all,  man’s  best 
companion  after  man  himself — the  dog.  You  all  know  that  the  well- 
bred  pointer,  though  raised  apart  from  any  bird  dog,  is  expected  to  stand 
the  first  bird  it  ever  scents,  and  the  better  classes  of  this  breed  will  also 
retrieve  the  bird  when  killed.  These  traits  are,  however,  late  acquire- 
ments and  they  are  readily  lost.  It  takes  the  utmost  care  in  selection 
and  breeding  to  maintain  the  type.  Three  or  four  generations  of  the 
same  blood,  untrained  and  undisciplined,  will  give  a scrub  dog  which  no 
trainer  would  accept.  He  will  break  shot,  chase  and  mangle  his  game 
and  show  all  the  vices.  If  you  will  notice  this  scrub  dog,  however,  you 
will  see  in  him  certain  traits  which  never  lapse.  These  his  ancestors 
had  for  the  thousands  upon  thousands  of  years  before  he  knew  man.  I 
will  mention  as  one  the  habit  of  turning  around  two  or  three  times 
before  lying  down  to  rest.  There  are  breeds  of  dogs  whose  ancestors 
have  certainly  been  separated  from  the  jungle  for  thousands  of  years, 
but  the  millions  of  years  of  jungle  habit  will  not  be  overcome  in  a day, 
and  he  will  conscientiously  “go  through  the  motions”  of  treading  down 
the  grass  on  the  hearth  before  the  fire.  I would  also  invite  your  atten- 
tion to  another  influence  of  heredity  manifested  in  these  animals  now 
under  consideration.  We  have  all  heard  of  the  cur  dog  and  most  of  us 
have  seen  him.  A “yaller  dog,”  with  a dark  muzzle,  ears  at  least  semi- 
erect  and  a drooping  tail.  He  is  the  product  of  indiscriminate  breed- 
ing and  it  makes  no  difference  how  specialized  the  type  from  which 
you  start,  the  product  of  the  indiscriminate  breeding  of  varieties  is  a 
reversion  to  the  primitive  type  in  color,  in  form  and  in  temper,  and  thi3, 
whether  it  be  the  wolf,  jackal,  dhole  or  dingo  type.  The  crossing  of  a 
shepherd  dog  and  a setter  will  not  give  a combination  dog,  but  an  animal 


5 


■worthless  either  for  sheep  or  birds.  He  throws  to  the  wind  his  late 
acquirements  which  man  for  a short  time  has  forced  upon  him,  and  falls 
back  upon  and  retains  only  what  is  bred  in  the  bone.  In  his  phylogeny 
the  tutelage  of  man  counts  as  but  a day,  and,  left  alone,  he  is  himself 
again,  the  wild  dog,  the  “sheep-killing  dog,”  the  pariah,  the  cur  whose 
name  is  the  very  essence  of  opprobrium.  These  constitute  a few  of  the 
commonplace  illustrations  of  this  law  around  us. 

From  what  has  been  said  it  will  be  seen  that  the  longer  the  life  history 
of  a race  (the  phylogeny)  has  been  uniform,  undisturbed  and  unbroken 
by  modifying  influences,  the  more  firmly  ingrained  will  be  the  peculiar 
traits  descending  to  any  offspring  of  this  race,  and  influencing  its  life 
(the  ontogeny).  It  will  be  further  seen  from  the  above  that  in  order 
that  any  modifying  influence  should  produce  a permanent  change  in  the 
habits  of  a race  it  must  be  applied  for  a long  time;  a time  at  least  long 
enough  to  establish  in  place  of  the  old,  a secondary  phylogeny,  at  least 
commensurate  in  time  with  the  first,  and  also  that  the  influence  of  the 
change  in  environment  must  persist.  The  latter  is  absolutely  essen- 
tial ; otherwise  physiological  inertia  and  momentum  would  the  one  offset 
the  other. 

Let  us  apply  this  biological  axiom  to  the  human  race,  taking  as  our 
example  of  that  race,  the  Southern  negro.  In  advance,  I will  here  state 
what  I hope  to  show.  I will  endeavor  to  show  that  the  American  negro 
is  the  resultant  of  a combination  of  forces,  each  one  of  which  can  be 
isolated  and  analyzed.  I will  show  from  the  study  of  his  racial  history 
(phylogeny)  that  his  late  tendency  to  return  to  barbarism  is  as  natural 
as  the  return  of  the  sow  that  is  washed  to  her  wallowing  in  the  mire.  1 
mil  show  that  the  ages  of  degradation  under  which  he  was  formed  and 
the  fifty  centuries  of  historically  recorded  savagery  with  which  he  came 
to  us  can  not  be  permanently  influenced  by  one  or  two  centuries  of 
enforced  correction  ;f  the  correcting  force  be  withdrawn.  I will  further 
endeavor  to  show  that  when  the  correcting  force  of  discipline  wa3 
removed  he,  like  the  released  plummet,  began  to  fall,  and,  although  the 
mills  of  the  gods  grind  slowly,  what  we  have  already  seen  is  but  the  first 
evidence  of  a motion  as  certain  in  its  results  as  the  law  of  gravitation. 

Fortunately  for  us,  experience  (history)  also  shows  that  these  savage 
traits  can  be  held  down,  and  we  have  seen  that  if  held  down  long  enough, 
they  will  be  bred  out.  In  this  one  fact  lies  the  hope  of  the  South. 

Let  us  go  back,  then,  and  look  at  the  phylogeny  of  our  brother  in 
black,  and  see  what  his  first  history  teaches  us.  It  may  be  asked  ere  we 
begin,  what  African  our  American  is — of  what  tribe,  from  what  part  of 
the  continent  ? I will  answer  that  we,  at  least,  know  that  he  came  from 
the  west  coast  of  Africa,  and  from  the  valleys  of  the  Higer  and  Senegal, 
and  as  everything  in  this  part  of  Africa  is  originally  of  one  race  and  one 
blood,  we  will  call  him  the  west  coast  African — the  true  negro,  the  very 
lowest  of  the  blacks. 


6 


Erman  and  other  writers  on  ancient  Egypt  declare  that  the  negro  Was 
known  to  the  early  Egyptians  as  far  back  as  the  time  of  Pepi,  of  the 
VI  Dynasty.  This  is  put  by  all  Egyptologists  as  far  back  as  2500 
E.  C.,  and  by  many  a thousand  years  earlier.  It  was  also  indicated  that 
the  negro  of  that  date  presented  the  same  general  characteristics  of  the 
negro  of  equatorial  Africa  to-day.  In  the  time  of  Thotmes  III,  about 
1500  B.  C.,  there  was  carved  at  Thebes  a triumphal  tablet  which  repre- 
sents a line  of  negro  prisoners,  with  their  wives  and  children,  being 
registered  by  a scribe.  The  woolly-headed,  thick-lipped,  prognathic 
savage  stands  there  to-day  as  if  graven  yesterday  with  the  Southern  plan- 
tation negro  as  the  model.  We  next  meet  him  in  Carthage,  brought  by 
caravans  across  the  desert  from  the  sources  of  the  Niger,  the  head- 
waters of  this  stream  being  known  to  them  as  the  “Nile  of  the  Blacks.” 
W e hear  of  the  negro  again  in  Roman  times  as  a bearer  of  burdens  in 
Rome,  and  an  untrammelled  savage  in  Africa;  still  the  same.  The 
slave-trader  found  him  later,  just  the  same,  ready  to  sell  his  own  flesh 
and  blood  and  that  of  his  neighbor — when  he  could  not  eat  it.  So  Du 
Ohaillu,  Livingston,  Speke,  Grant,  Stanley  and  others  have  all,  and  at 
all  times,  found  him,  the  original  and  unmodified  savage. 

In  evidence  of  what  the  negro  still  is  in  Africa,  I null  cite  here  from 
a report  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Shepherd,  a negro  missionary  of  the  Southern 
Presbyterian  Church,  in  the  Congo  Free  State.  This  report  is  corrobo- 
rated and  endorsed  as  true  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Vass  and  Rev.  Mr.  Morrison, 
of  the  same  Church.  Hearing  of  a slave  raid  in  his  vicinity  at  Luebo, 
Mr.  Shepherd  went  over  to  the  raided  villages  and  I quote  from  Mr. 
Y ass’s  report:* 

"The  sight  was  barbarous.  He  (Shepherd)  saw  fourteen  villages 
burned  and  plundered.  He  saw  forty-seven  dead  lying  around  the 
camp,  rotting;  saw  three  with  the  flesh  carved  carefidly  off  and  eaten, 
according  to  the  testimony  of  the  chief,  Melumba  N’Cusa.  He  (Me- 
lumba  IST’Cusa)  said  eighty  or  ninety  had  been  killed,  the  others  were 
eaten  by  his  people.  There  are  500  of  the  Zaps  at  this  place.  He  saw 
sixty  women  prisoners  huddled  together  in  a pen.  Many  will  likely 
be  eaten  ; others  taken  to  the  State.  Sixteen  men  had  already  been  sent 
to  the  State.  The  road  along  the  way  stank  from  the  exposed  dead.” 

This  report  was  made  in  October,  1899,  less  than  six  months  ago,  and 
it  gives  the  forbears  of  our  Southern  negroes  as  they  are  seen  at  home 
to-day.  I will  further  add  that  there  is  not  in  history  or  in  monument 
one  scintilla  of  evidence  to  prove  that  the  west  coast  negro  was  ever  let- 
ter than  we  find  him  to-day. 

Lord  Beaconsfield  was  wont  to  boast,  as  well  he  might,  that  liis  fore- 
fathers were  kings  when  the  ancestors  of  the  people  of  England  were 


*The  Missionary,  January,  1000. 


7 


skin-clad  savages  in  the  mud-flats  of  northern  Europe,  but  where  is  the 
pliylogeny  of  the  Jew  when  it  is  thus  matched  against  the  forty  or  fifty 
centuries  of  unchanged  life,  presented  by  this  dusky,  primitive  type  ? 

A careful  study  of  the  foregoing  writers  will  show  an  individual  life 
in  Africa,  past  or  present,  to  be  about  as  follows : The  negro  child  is 

bom  under  fair  skies  and  in  a land  of  plenty,  but  so  improvident  are 
his  people  that  although  plantains,  bananas  and  “mealies”  will  grow  for 
the  mere  planting,  his  life  from  his  birth  onward  is  marked  by  alternate 
periods  of  gorging  and  starving.  The  latter  causes  him  to  widen  the 
range  of  his  appetite  and  young  buds,  succulent  roots,  insects,  berries  or 
anything-  that,  would  prolong  life,  are  used.  The  survivors  of  many 
centuries  of  such  a life  should  certainly  be  of  strong  digestion  and  indis- 
criminate appetite,  and  this  explains  why  a negro  ration,  as  it  is  called 
South,  "a  peck  of  meal,  three  pounds  of  bacon  and  a pint  of  molasses  a 
week,”  is  “a  plenty.” 

But  the  influence  of  periodic  starvation  is  seen  in  another  way.  At 
some  early  period  when  not  only  threatened,  but  actual,  starvation  came, 
the  survivors  survived,  as  they  have  often  done  elsewhere,  through  can- 
nibalism. in  the  next  period  of  dearth  cannibalism  was  easier,  and 
in  the  next,  easier  still.  With  annual  periods  of  famine  it  is  easy  to  see 
how  the  habit  grew  and  how  in  time  it  reached  a point  at  which  they 
could  not  wait  for  the  famine,  but  began  to  avail  themselves  of  whatever 
material  disease  or  war  happened  to  throw  in  their  way.  That  death 
by  disease  afforded  no  obstacles  with  the  equatorial  negro  is  seen  in  the 
case  recorded  by  Stanley  when  they  dug  up  and  ate  a corpse,  dead  with 
smallpox,  which  had  been  buried  for  quite  a time.  Such,  in  short,  is 
my  idea  of  the  origin  of  cannibalism.  It  is  the  logical  result  of  a 
climate  and  soil  bountiful  enough  to  beget  improvidence  and  yet  not 
sufficiently  certain  to  insure  against  occasional  famine.  Unable  to 
n^sist,,  the  aged  first,  suffered,  and  came  in  time  to  be  everywhere  con- 
sidered as  legitimate  material  for  food.  But  let  us  return  to  our  young 
Afri  can.  Protected  by  a racial  odor  that  seems  to  repel  even  the  mos- 

quito, (the  bite  of  a certain  type  of  mosquito  is  now  known  to  l)e  the 
cause  of  malaria),  he  is  immune  to  the  fevers  which  make  the  west  coast 
the  white  man's  grave.  As  he  grows  to  adolescence  he  is  familiarized 
with  every  type  of  evil  and  brutality,  lie  secs  in  the  centre  of  the  kraal 
a young  girl  lashed  to  a pole  to  be  devoured  alive  by  buzzards — “a 
charm  to  bring  rain”  (Burton);  he  sees  annually  the  “customs”  when 
20.  30  and  sometimes  even  70  or  80  human  beings,  male  and  female, 
are  publicly  put  to  death  by  club  and  spear  “to  propitiate  the  evil 
spirits.” 

When  adolescence  is  complete  he  joins  the  fighting  men  to  learn  the 
use  of  the  bow,  the  club  and  the  spear,  and  he  is  then  ready  to  partici- 
pate in  the  cannibal  forays  and  in  the  slave  raids.  These  raids,  as  we 


8 


have  seen,  consist  in  swooping  down  on  some  unsuspecting  village,  mur- 
dering the  men  and  capturing  and  outraging  the  women.  The  children 
of  both  sexes  are  also  taken,  sometimes  eaten  and  sometimes  kept  as 
slaves.  The  free  sexual  life  of  the  kraal  and  the  raid,  continued  as  it 
has  been  for  ages,  lias  given  the  negro  male,  at  least,  a sexual  develop- 
ment, both  anatomical  and  physiological,  unapproached  except  among 
the  lower  animals.  A feature  of  west  coast  life,  that  to  my  mind  was 
its  most  important  feature,  was  the  absence  of  all  restraint  either 
parental,  social,  or  governmental.  The  child,  the  boy,  and  the  man  fol- 
lowed only  his  impulses,  and  these  were  in  time  naturally  cultivated 
to  the  basest  of  passions,  with  the  results  dishonesty  and  robbery,  crueity 
and  murder,  lust  and  rape.  Among  all  men  Ave  have  many  that  are 
dishonest,  yet  there  are  few  robberies;  lust  is,  among  the  depraved,  as 
natural  as  thirst,  yet  there  is  but  little  rapine,  and  there  is,  moreoArer, 
everywhere  inherent  cruelty,  and  yet  there  is  little  murder.  With  the 
savage,  however,  there  is  no  self-control,  and  dishonesty  gives  theft, 
anger  gives  murder,  and  desire  rape.  This  state  of  being  is  pathogno- 
monic of  savagery ; and  the  African  fills  the  bill.  There  seems  to  be  in 
him  an  entire  absence  of  sustained  will-power — will  to  resist-  Xot 
being  able  to  resist  his  impulses,  he  has  no  fixed  purpose,  no  resolve,  and 
the  result,  no  pertinacity.  The  outcome  of  all  this  moral  deformity  is 
a creature  which,  as  far  back  as  history  runs,  has  made  the  ideal  slave, 
in  so  far,  at  least,  as  resistance  is  concerned.  In  old  Egypt,  Carthage 
and  Rome,  one  and  all,  he  brought  the  highest  price,  the  sordid  measure 
of  adaptability.  There  are  races  that  die  under  captivity.  The  force 
that  is  strong  enough  to  keep  them  under  is  too  strong  for  life,  and 
they  perish.  The  early  settlers  of  Xew  England  and  Virginia  had  an 
abundance  of  quite  highly  colored  people  around  them;  why  did  not 
they  enslave  them?  They  all  at  first  tried  it,  but  practically  they 
failed ; for  our  Indian  was  of  sterner  stuff  than  the  west  coast  native. 
With  the  latter,  but  supply  his  bodily  wants,  including  Avoman,  and  he 
is  happy  under  any  social  conditions,  for  in  his  natural  state  a desire 
seldom  strays  above  his  medulla.  This  peculiarity,  this  contentment 
Avith  slavery,  notwithstanding  his  savagery,  made  him  most  acceptable 
to  the  thinly-peopled  plantations  of  Wassaclnisetts  and  Virginia.  It 
was  this  ingrained  trait  of  nature  and  this  alone  which  saved  the  South 
from  a slave  uprising  during  the  Avar  of  secession.  These,  in  short,  are 
the  generic  traits  of  the  savage  black,  Avhiek  cupidity  on  the  one  hand, 
and  folly  on  the  other,  led  us  to  bring  to  our  shores. 

And  now  as  to  the  American  exotic.  The  natural  condition  of  any 
locality  influences  its  fauna  as  well  as  it  flora.  In  a state  of  nature,  the 
mere  fact  that  these  forms  of  life  are  there,  is  proof  that  they  are  able 
to  meet  the  conditions  of  climate,  life,  warfare,  etc.,  in  that  localitv: 
they  are  the  product  of  their  environment.  There  are  certain  races  of 


9 


mankind  so  adjustable  that  they  can  live  anywhere.  The  dog  has  been 
so  long  a follower  of  man  that  in  his  hands  he  has  been  put  in  such 
shape  that,  in  one  form  or  another,  he  follows  man  anywhere  on  the 
globe.  The  same  is  true  of  man’s  other  parasitic  attendants,  the  rat, 
the  cat,  the  cockroach,  the  house-fly,  etc.  Usually,  however,  where  any 
animal  or  vegetable  type  is  moved  from  its  natural  environment,  and 
placed  in  a new,  we  see  a disturbance  of  nature — a biological  revolution. 
Either  the  new  comer  will  find  telluric  and  climatic  conditions  which 
it  is  unable  to  overcome,  consequently  perishing,  as  the  palm  in  Iceland 
or  the  Esquimo  in  the  tropics,  or  else  it  will  be  found  that  the  natural 
causes  which  hold  it  in  check  in  its  own  land  are  wanting  in  the  new, 
and  it  grows  beyond  all  bounds  and  becomes  a pest  and  curse.  Among 
the  plants  this  is  known  to  many  of  you  from  your  experience  with 
Bermuda  grass,  Means’s  grass,  etc.  Turning  to  the  animal  forms,  we 
all  know  that  among  the  acts  of  folly  for  which  man  has  suffered  more 
or  less  may  be  mentioned  the  introduction  of  the  rabbit  into  Australia, 
the  “English”  sparrow  into  Xorth  America,  the  mongoose  into  Ber- 
muda, the  Gypsy  moth  into  Massachusetts,  etc.  But  of  all  the  follies 
recorded  since  the  fall  of  Adam  none  is  to  be  compared  with  the  intro- 
duction of  the  west  coast  cannibal  into  America.  The  lack  of  suitability 
to  our  political  conditions,  on  the  one  hand,  with  the  marvelous  devel- 
opment of  parasitic  qualities  and  an  unusual  fecundity,  on  the  other, 
has  made  it  the  crowning  folly  of  the  world.  That  we  have  learned 
something  through  experience,  is  shown  in  the  “Chinese  Exclusion”  act 
— although  I would  hesitate  to  base  this  statement  on  the  reasons 
assigned  by  the  Congressmen  who  voted  for  this  exclusion. 

The  American  continent  received  its  first  negro  slaves  in  1620,  the 
slave  trade  ceased  finally  about  1808  and  slavery  ended  in  1865.  The 
early  distribution  of  these  slaves  is  interesting.  There  were  at  the 
time  of  the  first  census,  in  1790,  only  697,897  slaves  in  the  United 
States,  of  whom  17  were  in  Vermont,  158  in  Hew  Hampshire,  2,759 
in  Connecticut,  in  Hew  Jersey  11,423,  and  so  on  increasing  as  we  go 
South.  With  anti-slavery  prejudices  at  that  date  practically  nil,  this 
disparity  in  negro  population  Horth  and  South  must  have  been  due  to 
the  fact  that  equatorial  “help”  was  not  profitable  in  the  far  Horth. 

The  American  negro  as  we  find  him,  to-day  is  the  resultant  of  a mix- 
ture of  many  tribes  in  one  race.  Some  were  artisans,  as  the  Eans, 
others  farmers,  as  the  Ashanti,  and  others  traders,  as  the  Bakete,  but  in 
this  they  all  agreed ; all  were  savages.  And  yet  it  must  not  be  forgot- 
ten that  while  the  rank  and  file  of  the  negroes  brought  to  America  came 
from  the  slave  coast,  the  gold  coast,  the  ivory  coast,  and  some  few  even 
as  far  down  the  west  side  as  Benguela,  a few  slaves  came  from  almost  all 
parts  of  Africa.  The  result  was  that  the  cannibal  herd  from  Bonny, 
Old  Malabar  and  the  Cameroons  was  at  least  leavened  with  a fair 


10 


measure  of  less  black,  and  less  degraded  (Indo- African)  blood  from 
the  southwestern  coast.  From  Bonny  alone  came  320,000  negroes  to 
America.  It  must  also  be  remembered  that  quite  a large  number  of 
female  slaves  landed  in  America  were  either  with  child  or  had  young 
at  their  breasts  by  the  African  slave-trader  (usually  Portuguese,  Indo- 
African  and  Arab)  ; an  entirely  different  kind  of  savage.  Xor  must  it 
be  forgotten  that  at  least  during  the  early  part  of  the  period  of  slavery 
the  negroes  inter-married  with  the  occasional  Indian  slaves,  or  interbred 
with  the  then  abundant  “tame  Indians.”  All  these  things  must  be 
borne  in  mind  in  estimating  the  occasional  products  of  this  mixture. 
The  Indian  cross  gave  a negro  of  sullen  temper,  but  of  very  decided 
force  (Fred  Douglas),  one  certainly,  as  I remember,  much  feared  by 
his  fellows  on  the  plantation.  I also  recall  when  a boy  having  heard 
a slave  woman  boast  that  she  was  a "Dinka  nigger,”  and  it  was  many 
years  afterward  that  I learned  of  this  fine  Indo-African  race,  living  a 
thousand  miles  or  more  inland  from  the  west  coast,  and  seldom  enslaved. 
I will,  moreover,  state,  since  I have  entered  upon  reminiscence,  that  I 
have  seen  on  the  floor  of  Congress  the  very  image  of  a dusky  Portuguese 
Don,  representing  one  of  the  Gulf  States  of  the  South.  Last  came  the 
final  and  abundant  crossing  with  the  white  race.  The  monuments  of 
this  form  of  human  frailty  are  everywhere  around  us,  and  fitting  mon- 
uments they  are  of  frailty.  Of  less  stamina  than  African  black,  thev 
show  more  intelligence,  but  the  inherent  physical  weakness  of  hybridiza- 
tion forbids  that  they  should  ever  wipe  out.  physically  the  line  between 
the  races.  My  own  limited  observation  shows,  and  I think  the  next 
census  will  bear  me  out,  that  they  are  markedly  on  the  decrease. 
Whether  this  is  due  to  improved  morality  on  the  part,  of  the  whites, 
or  to  a high  death  rate  on  the  part  of  the  mulattoes.  time  alone  will 
show. 

And  now  let.  us  turn  to  the  influence  of  this  "peculiar  institution” 
upon  the  negro.  Although  he  came  to  us  a savage,  with  fifty  genera- 
tions of  unalloyed  savagery  behind  him,  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
of  close  association,  as  slave  and  master,  produced  changes  in  the  race, 
the  like  of  which  has  never  been  seen  lief  ore  or  since. 

Whatever  the  evils  of  slavery  may  have  been  and  I have  no  desire 
to  minimize  them,  the  general  result  was  at  the  close  of  the  war  some 
4,000,000  negroes,  who  were  in  their  average  morality  and  character 
so  far  ahead  of  any  other  4,000,000,  or  any  other  1,000,000  of  that 
race  to  be  found  elsewhere  on  the  face  of  the  earth  that,  they  were  not 
in  the  same  class.  I seriously  doubt  if  from  the  millions  of  negroes  of 
Cape  Colony,  the  Soudan,  Zanzibar  and  Egypt,  one  hundred  thousand 
of  this  race  could  have  been  secured  which  would  compare  in  general 
morality  and  character  with  the  average  product  of  American  slavery. 
And  it  must  be  here  again  emphasized  that,  the  negroes  selected  for 


11 


comparison  above  are  of  the  higher  Indo-African  race,  while  our  raw 
material  was  almost  entirely  the  west  coast  cannibal.  No,  my  friends, 
we  can  boldly  declare  the  old  Southern  house  servant,  male  or  female, 
as  brought  up  in  the  better  class  of  families,  was  the  flood  tide  product 
in  negro  character.  It  seems  strange  that  a woman  of  Mrs.  Stowe’s 
intelligence,  should  not  have  seen  the  paradoxical  side  of  a work  writ- 
ten in  criticism  of  a civilization  which  produced  an  “Uncle  Tom”  and 
a “Topsy”  from  savage  cannibals  in  less  than  five  generations. 

But  let  us  turn  a moment  and  see  how  this  was  done.  It  was  most 
quickly  done  and  it  reached  its  highest  state  of  perfection  where  the 
negro  was  thrown,  and  kept,  in  daily  and  hourly  contact  with  the 
whites,  as  among  the  body  and  house  servants.  Here  the  negro  was,  as 
it  were,  a part  of  the  family ; he  was  around  the  whites  all  the  time. 
Even  on  the  Sabbath  he  went  to  a part  of  the  same  church,  set  apart  for 
him.  As  above  stated,  the  qualities  which  made  this  same  savage  appre- 
ciated and  valued  above  all  other  slaves  in  ancient  Egypt,  Carthage  and 
Home,  were  to  be  found  in  the  Southern  slaves,  namely : the  willing 
and  cheerful  surrender  of  his  will  to  a stronger  and  more  forceful 
character.  This  racial  hypnotism,  as  it  might  be  well  called,  long  con- 
tinued, gave  as  a resultant  in  the  South  an  “Uncle  Remus”  and  “Marse 
Chan’s”  Sam.  In  the  North  wherever  the  negroes  are  few  and  where 
they  are  brought  into  close  relationship  with  the  whites,  something  like 
it  is  seen  even  now ; and  the  resulting  negro  is  of  an  advanced  type,  but 
utterly  unlike  his  Southern  brother.  The  struggle  for  existence  there 
develops  even  in  the  negro  a seriousness  in  his  views  of  life  utterly  at 
variance  with  the  natural  negro  character. 

The  great  bulk  of  the  negroes  of  our  Southern  slavery  times  were  not, 
however,  house  servants.  They  were  the  field  hands  or  “quarters” 
negroes.  Here  a seemingly  loose  but  effective  discipline  was  main- 
tained. It  is  astonishing  when  we  look  back  upon  it  how  little  it  was 
and  yet  how  effective.  The  things  in  which  the  training  of  all  slaves 
agreed  were  in  the  three  essentials:  to  respect,  to  obey  and  to  work. 
These  three  tilings,  so  essential  to  the  formation  of  character  in  every 
man,  be  he  bond  or  free,  were  forced  upon  the  negro,  with  the  result  that 
he  developed  marvelously.  It  must  lie  understood  that  here  we  speak 
again  of  the  average.  The  later  importations  had  but  one  or  two  gen- 
erations of  tutelage  at  best;  and  on  the  large  plantation,  in  the  low 
swamp  lands,  and  on  the  isolated  sea  islands,  hundreds  of  negroes  were 
under  the  care  of  one  or  two  white  men,  usually  of  low  type,  and  their 
moral  training  was  nominal.  There  was,  however,  the  same  perfect 
obedience  and  much  work  but  no  respect,  for  overseer  and  slave  were 
usually  of  too  near  the  same  grade  for  respect.  But  just  here  I wish 
to  emphasize  one  fact  which  stands  out  with  wonderful  brightness  from 
the  picture  otherwise  sombre;  the  absence  of  serious  crime.  Rape  was 


12 


absolutely  unknown,  murder  was  of  exceeding  rarity  and  beyond  the 
petty  pilfering,  which  is  almost  a racial  attribute,  thievery  and  robbery 
were  the  same. 

The  negro  as  a freedman  we  all  know.  Bich  or  poor,  he  is  ever  ■with 
us.  Tie  is  the  sociological  unit  of  the  black  cloud  now  hanging  over  the 
South  and  threatening  its  very  existence.  The  great  diversity  of  opin- 
ion existing  among  the  people  of  America  regarding  this  problem  is,  in 
my  judgment,  due  to  the  fact  that  each  judges  from  the  small  number  of 
these  sociological  units  with  which  he  is  personally  familiar.  These 
are  necessarily  of  every  degree  of  diversity  and  hence  present  every 
shade  of  result.  Let  us,  however,  first  compare  the  negroes  North  and 
South.  In  the  North,  outside  of  the  large  cities,  the  negroes  are  few, 
they  are  not  herded  together  and  are  not  subjected  to  the  lowering 
influence  of  their  own  racial  association.  Here,  under  Caucasian  tute- 
lage, they  are  still  rising.  It  is  hard  for  the  Northern  man,  seeing  this 
clean  and  respectable  man  of  color,  to  form  any  idea  of  the  nienty  and 
nine  without  this  moral  support. 

If  further  illustration  is  needed  of  white  influence  on  the  negro,  take 
the  negro  “regular”  of  the  United  States  army.  Here,  under  the  long- 
continued  tutelage  of  white  officers  you  see  the  negro  moulded  with  the 
greatest  ease  into  a compact  organization.  On  the  other  side,  there  is 
no  burlesque  upon  organization  so  utterly  complete  as  a negro  regiment 
with  negro  officers.  The  uncontrolled  savagery  of  the  few  volunteer 
regiments  enlisted  during  the  Spanish-American  war  did  much  to  dis- 
credit the  superb  performance  of  the  negro  regulars  at  Sibony  and  San- 
tiago, while  it  opened  the  eyes  of  those  Northern  regiments  encamped 
near  them  as  to  what  a negro  can  really  be  when  he’s  “all  nigger.”  In 
the  large  cities  of  the  North,  especially  east  of  the  Mississippi,  they 
tend  to  congregate,  and  although  outnumbered  thousands  to  one  they 
improve  but  little. 

If  our  eight  million  negroes  could  be  distributed  evenly  throughout 
the  seventy  million  whites  on  this  continent  there  might  be  no  negro 
problem.  The  cloud  would  be  dissipated ; but,  alas  ! this  race  is  not  one 
of  “particularistic”  trend,  it  is  phylogenetically  gregarious,  and  tends 
to  herd,  hence  the  cloud.  But  even  under  the  favorable  conditions  for 
elevation  at  the  North,  even  under  the  stimulus  of  a public  trial  of  his 
race  before  the  world  and  under  the  very  eyes  of  his  liberators,  he 
breaks  down  and  his  phytogeny  asserts  itself ; with  the  result  that  there 
is  not  a State  in  the  Union,  North  or  South,  East  or  West,  where  the 
records  have  been  published,  in  which  the  negro  population  does  not  show 
proportionately  a greater  percentage  of  criminals  than  the  whites.* 

And  yet  as  criminal  as  they  are,  it  is  strange  with  such  antecedents 


*Willcox  “N?gro  Criminality.” 


13  • 

that  they  are  not  worse.  The  negroes  who  have  risen  above  their  generic 
tendencies,  and  they  a're  not  few,  are  worthy  of  our  very  highest  admira- 
tion and  respect.  This  I freely  and  gladly  accord,  but  he  is  the  enemy 
of  the  negro  who  for  a moment  fosters  in  him  the  belief  that,  the  essen- 
tials of  civilization  are  yet  his  or  that  his  race  is  now  ready  to  go  for- 
ward without  the  sustaining  influence  of  the  whites.  All  human 
experience  is  against  it:  he  is  not  yet  even  “galvanized.” 

It  is  said  that  if  you  scratch  a Russian  you  will  find  a Tartar.  By 
the  same  law,  if  you  scratch  a negro  you  will  find  a savage.  A curious 
evidence  of  this  fact  is  seen  in  the  negro  in  his  family  discipline.  He 
is  not  over  free  to  use  the  rod,  and  seems  to  approach  his  duties  in  this 
line  with  some  reluctance,  but  simply  watch  him  when  once  started. 
At  the  first  blow,  and  reflex  cry  of  agony,  the  savage  is  aroused.  With 
each  blow  his  frenzy  is  increased,  and  he  can  hardly  stop,  with  the 
result  that  the  brutal  l>eating  of  their  children  is  not  a small  factor  in 
the  present  fearful  child  mortality  of  that  race.  But  let  us  leave  the 
North  and  come  South  and  look  at  the  negro  on  the  ground  where  this 
problem  is  to  be  fought  out  Here  one  is  at  first  naturally  tempted  to 
divide  the  territory,  as  is  usually  done  in  considering  the  negro  problem,  . 
into  the  “South  at  large”  in  which  the  negro  is  simply  everywhere 
abundant,  and  into  the  “black  belt”  section  in  which  he  far  outnumbers 
the  whites.  The  fact  that  most  men  of  experience  in  estimating  the 
future  of  the  negro  base  tbeir  predictions  of  improvement  or  decline 
chiefly  upon  the  ratio  existing  between  the  races,  makes  me  hesitate  to 
declare  that  this  is  not  the  chief  element  involved  in  this  question  and 
yet  I do  not  believe  that  it  is.  I believe  it  to  be  a matter  nQt  of  ratio, 
nor  of  localities,  but  simply  a matter  of  generations.  The  increase  in 
crime  among  the  negroes  that  so  alarms  the  South  is  not  limited  to  any 
one  region,  but  the  increment  of  gain  seems  just  as  pronounced  in  the 
South  at  large  as  in  the  black  belt,  while  the  ratios  of  population  vary 
immensely.  My  own  observation  and  all  the  statistics  that  I am  able 
to  obtain  go  to  prove  that  the  last  generation  of  negroes  born  to  slavery 
was,  and  is  now,  far  more  free  from  criminal  habfts  than  the  one  born 
since  the  war.  Every  day  of  slavery  seems  to  have  counted  for  their 
benefit,  as  we  will  see  if  we  compare  the  records  of  this  generation  with 
that  of  rho<-e  whose  boast  it  is  that  they  were  born  free.  It  is  not  the 
older  negro,  but  the  negro  under  thirty,  which  crowds  our  jails  and  peni- 
tentiaries throughout  the  land.  As  we  have  seen,  the  negro  even  in  the 
North  is  distinctly  more  criminal  than  the  white,  but  the  negro  in  the 
South  leads  the  white  in  crime  by  from  one  hundred  to  several  hundred 
per  cent,  depending  upon  the  form  considered.  If  anyone  doubts  Tie 
facts  here  set  forlh  simply  let  him,  upon  bis  return  from  this  meeting, 
examine  the  police  justice’s  or  mayor’s  office  records  of  bis  own  town, 
and  I am  ready  to  stand  or  fall  upon  the  result.  In  this  examination 


14 


it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  crime  of  unlawful  cohabitation  among 
negroes  is,  as  a rule,  ignored  by  the  officers  of  the  law,  because  its  sup- 
pression is  an  end  impossible  of  attainment.  But  he  is  blind  to  the 
worst  aspect  of  this  negro  problem  and  shuts  his  eyes  to  the  most  dis- 
heartening feature  of  the  race  question  who  does  not  recognize  and  con- 
fess the  fact  that,  bad  as  this  comparison  is  for  the  negro,  it  would  be 
far  worse  if  the  white  race  in  the  South  had  not  been  made  more  crimi- 
nal than  it  otherwise  would  have  been  by  prolonged  contact  with  this 
degraded  race.  There  is  no  use  in  longer  mincing  matters.  This  prob- 
lem is  to  save  the  white  man  of  the  South  from  barbarism  by  reclaiming 
the  savage  to  whom  he  is  inseparably  tied.  It  rises  above  a question  of 
altruism  and  becomes  a question  of  self-preservation.  With  this  view 
of  it,  then,  let  us  study  the  conditions  at  present  existing  in  the  South. 

In  the  Middle  Atlantic  States  and  in  the  piedmont  and  mountain  sec- 
tions of  the  South  Atlantic  and  Gulf  States,  the  negro  is  not  at  his  worst. 
Alixed  in  with  the  whites  in  small  proportion  he  is  in  some  measure 
improving  with  the  general  improvement  of  the  country.  He  is  the 
day  laborer,  the  stableman,  the  wagoner,  and,  to  an  increasing  extent, 
•the  carpenter,  bricklayer  and  blacksmith  of  the  country.  In  the  latter 
art  be  is  particularly  strong,  and  not  without  reason,  for  the  Fans  and 
other  west  coast  tribes,  although  the  worst  of  cannibals,  have  been  from 
time  immemorial  excellent  workers  in  iron.  In  all  other  races  when 
the  “iron  age”  was  reached,  some  social  prosperity  and  progress  began, 
but  the  west  coast  negro  it  failed  to  raise.  Throughout  this  entire  sec- 
tion above  referred  to  the  older  negroes  are  usually  good,  honest  and 
reliable  laborers,  worthy  representatives  of  their  class,  and  in  their 
humble  sphere,  good  citizens.  They  were  born  to  slavery  or  else  were 
born  so  early  after  that  institution  ceased,  that  its  momentum  carried 
them  on,  and  their  working  parents  taught  them  to  work.  Some  few 
have  made  money,  others  have  received  their  homes,  and  others  small 
property,  from  their  former  masters.  It  is  the  young  negro  class  which 
gives  us  cause  for  alarm.  The  term  “worthless”  is  so  universally 
applied  to  this  class  that  I think  it  must  be  the  proper  one.  They  are 
absolutely  worthless  and  no  industry  can  be  successfully  maintained 
which  is  entirely  dependent  upon  their  labors. 

But  now  let  us  turn  to  the  true  “black  belt.”  Beginning  in  southside 
Virginia,  through  the  tide-water  section  of  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia, 
around  the  coast  and  up  the  Mississippi  to  Memphis,  we  have  a climate 
and  soil  as  congenial  to  the  black  as  the  valley  of  the  Senegal  or  that 
of  the  Niger.  Parts  of  this  section,  and  those  its  most  fertile,  the  rice 
plantations,  the  river  bottoms  and  the  sea  islands  had,  as  before  stated, 
a population  of  a hundred  negroes  to  one  overseer.  The  highly  aromatic 
black  of  the  Guinea  coast  was  best  adapted  to  these  intensely  malarial 
sections  with  the  result  that  he  was  weeded  out  in  the  uplands  and  sent 


15 


there  by  the  thousands.  The  original  African  formed  in  some  places 
such  a large  part  of  the  population  that  those  words  of  the  west  coast 
dialects,  which  were  common  to  a number  of  tribes,  became,  with  per- 
verted English  and  French  verbs,  the  current  jargon  of  the  coast  negro. 
The  French  element  must  have  come  in  with  the  ITaytian  negro, 
brought  here  early  in  this  century.  This  dialect  de  diable  is  as  some 
of  you  know  spoken  to-day  within  thirty  miles  of  this  city,  and  is  as 
absolutely  unintelligible  to  the  average  member  of  this  body  as  Chinese 
or  Arabian.  In  this  black  belt  it  will  be  readily  seen  that  the  negro 
was  elevated  but  little  by  slavery ; he  was  simply  a savage  under  coer- 
cion. And  yet  the  white  man  had  taught  him  to  obey  and  to  work,  and 
that  for  a west  coast  negro  was  a long  step  towards  civilization.  At  all 
events,  in  this  black  belt  section,  it  is  again  the  older  negroes,  the 
ex-slaves  or  the  sons  of  slaves  born  soon  after  the  war,  who  are  the  only 
ones  on  whom  it  is  possible  to  rely  for  labor. 

Thirty-five  years  have  passed  since  the  negro  changed  from  the  condi- 
tion of  a slave  to  that  of  a freedman.  In  every  part  of  the  South,  it  is 
the  opinion  of  every  man  of  unbiased  mind,  that  the  second  generation 
is  infinitely  worse  than  the  first.  So  patent  is  this  that  I would  be 
tempted  to  doubt  the  sanity  of  any  man  having  fair  opportunities  to 
judge,  who  declared  the  reverse  to  be  true.  The  question  for  us  to-day 
then,  and  the  question  of  questions  for  the  South,  is,  “What  is  the  cause 
of  the  change  and  what  can  be  done  to  remedy  the  evil  ?”  The  first 
thing  is  to  seek  out  the  truth,  however  unpalatable  it  may  be,  and  in 
my  opinion  it  is  very  simple.  The  young  negro  of  the  South,  except 
where  descended  from  parents  of  exceptional  character  and  worth,  is 
reverting  through  hereditary  forces  to  savagery.  Fifty  centuries  of 
savagery  in  the  blood  can  not  be  held  down  by  two  centuries  of  forced 
good  behavior  if  the  controlling  influences  which  held  down  his  savagely 
are  withdrawn  as  they  have  been  in  this  case.  The  language  and  forms 
of  civilization  may  be  maintained,  but  the  savage  nature  remains.  It 
is  the  nature  that  makes  the  criminal  and  imperils  a civilization,  not 
the  language,  the  skin  or  the  clothes. 

That  this  return  to  savagery  may  possibly  occur  with  the  negro  we 
have  evidence  in  the  experience  of  Hayti.  The  island  of  Ilavti  is  about 
the  size  of  Scotland,  and  infinitely  more  fertile.  Into  this,  the  first 
known  island  of  the  Western  world,  the  negro  was  introduced  as  a slave 
in  1505.  Here  the  whites  and  the  negro  dwelt  in  the  relation  of  master 
and  slave  until  the  French  revolution  of  1798  brought  on  a secondary 
colonial  revolution  in  Hayti,  and  about  1805,  after  just  three  centuries 
of  association,  the  whites  were  driven  out  or  destroyed  and  the  negro 
was  free  to  work  out  his  own  salvation. 

Let  us  glance  a moment  at  his  social  equipment  for  this  task.  When 
the  revolutionary  cry  of  “ laberte , egalite  et  fratemite”  was  raised  in 


1G 


Ilayti,  it  found  450,000  souls,  of  which  40,000  were  white,  about  30,000 
free  mulattoes  and  the  remainder  west  coast  blacks,  slaves.  Lossing,  in 
his  “Horrors  of  San  Domingo,”  (Harper,  June,  1871),  says:  “Many 
of  the  mulattoes  owned  large  estates.  Not  a few  had  been  liberally  edu- 
cated in  France,  and  many  households  were  models  of  elegance  and 
refinement  wherein  happily  dwelt  young  Frenchmen  with  beautiful 
quadroon  wives.”  Of  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  revolution  he  says  that 
he  “in  France  had  associated  on  terms  of  equality  with  Lafayette  and 
his  revolutionary  compeers,”  etc.  This  tells  us  at  least  enough  to 
demonstrate  that  the  slave  hordes  were  at  least  once  tinctured  with  men 
of  education  and  force,  and  that  they  started  on  their  career  of  free- 
dom with  some  intelligent  and  able  leaders.  It  is  a long,  dismal  story 
from  Soulouque  to  Hippolyte,  but  the  outcome  of  it  all  is  graphically 
set  forth  on  the  authority  of  Sir  Spencer  St.  John  (The  Black  Republic, 
1899),  as  follows:  “Official  peculation,  judicial  murder  and  utter  cor- 

ruption of  every  kind,  underlie  the  forms  and  titles  of  civilized  govern- 
ment; the  religion,  nominally  Christian,  is  largely  Voudoux,  or  serpent- 
worship,  in  which  actual  and  horrible  cannibalism  is  even  now  a most 
important  element.  Instead  of  progressing,  the  negro  Republican  has 
gone  back  to  the  lowest  type  of  African  barbarism.”  The  same  state  of 
affairs  is  rapidly  approaching  in  Gaudaloupe  and  Martinique. 

We  have  here  one  fact  that  will  offset  a ton  of  theory : in  the  Western 
world,  under  conditions  differing  in  no  marked  essential  from  those  pre- 
sented in  our  own  black  belt,  the  negro  has  gone  back  to  savagery,  and 
that  too  while  still  presenting  all  the  outward  forms  of  Civilization. 

Let  us  look  at  our  own  negroes  for  the  prodromal  symptoms  of  this 
decline.  In  the  first  place,  let  us  take  up  and  consider  the  family,  the 
unit  of  social  measurement  and  gauge  of  social  progress.  This  family, 
in  the  warmer  parts  of  the  South  at  least,  lives  by  preference  in  a hovel. 
Provide  good,  healthful  and  substantial  houses,  or  clean,  neat  and 
attractive  rooms,  and  try  to  substitute  these  in  lieu  of  a part  of  the 
monthly  or  weekly  wage,  and  see  how  you  will  stand  in  the  matter  of 
servants.  They  will  not  have  them  at  this  price.  Money  represents 
to  the  negro  the  power  of  gratification  for  animal  appetite.  Comfort, 
health,  self-respect  and  gentility  are  as  a rule  nothing  compared  with 
the  gratification  of  vanity,  lust,  the  cravings  for  drink,  tobacco,  the 
gaming  habit,  etc.  To  obtain  the  money  which  represents  these  things 
they  are  almost  all  willing  to  herd  like  animals  in  the  foulest  of  dens 
and  amidst  the  filthiest  of  surroundings.  This  is  the  environment  that 
we  must  start  with  to  approach  the  next  element  of  family  life — 
children.  Begotten  of  the  very  loosest  sexual  relations,  there  is  of 
necessity  little  love  of  offspring,  and  abortion,  infanticide,  and  child 
murder  are  common.  This,  with  the  pitiful  parental  neglect  of  infancy, 
with  its  resulting  high  infant  mortality,  alone  prevents  the  race,  with  its 


17 


wonderful  fecundity  in  this  congenial  clime,  from  overstocking  the 
South  in  a few  decades.  As  the  ox’dinarv  negro  child  grows  it  is  in 
such  fatal  surroundings,  of  course  without  discipline,  and  it  can  hope  to 
be  no  better  than  the  source  of  its  moral  and  religious  training.  Here 
the  child  simply  grows  as  the  twig  is  bent,  and  as  die  direction  is  natur- 
ally in  line  with  the  standard  of  preceding  generations  it  is  downward, 
as  far  as  morality  is  concerned.  As  far  as  externals  go  he  seems  better 
than  he  is.  The  rapidity  with  which  this  young  negro  acquires  through 
“sound  memory”  is,  for  his  opportunities,  good,  and  makes  up  for  his 
racial  deficiency  in  “symbol  memory”  training.  Judged  by  what  we 
call  “brightness”  in  children,  the  negro  child  can  take  very  fair  rank 
among  his  fellows  of  the  human  family,  and  some  of  them  are  bright,  a 
quality  not  a little  accented  by  their  racial  cheeriness  and  lightness  of 
heart.  And  yet  yoxx  all,  as  medical  men,  know  of  that  sadness  of  heart 
with  which  you  have  watched  the  development,  of  physical  beaxxty  or 
high  mental  attributes  in  the  members  of  some  families  doomed  by 
hereditary  tendencies  to  premature  death.  With  the  same  feeling, 
experience  has  taught  us  to  look  upon  the  relatively  precocious  intelli- 
gence of  negro  childhood,  for  we  know  that  with  the  advent  of  pxxbeiiy 
and  sexual  development  there  will  be  an  almost  total  arrest  of  subse- 
quent mental  growth.  His  people  have  “gone  to  seed”  at  this  time  of 
life  too  long  for  him  to  depart  from  the  family  traditions.  It  has  been 
noted  from  the  earliest  time  in  northern  Africa  and  western  Asia,  where 
the  necessities  of  harem  life  require  the  eunuch,  that  the  negTo  eunuch 
was  a vast  improvement  in  shrewdness  and  general  ixitelligence  on  the 
unaltered  black,  but  the  reason  for  it  did  not  at  once  appear. 

But  let  us  return  once  more  to  the  consideration  of  this  discarded 
“ward  of  the  nation”  which  has  in  fact  become  the  foundling  of  the 
State.  The  public  school  which  he  attends  is  poor  enough,  and  its 
oppox’tunities  for  advancement  are  meager,  but  it  has  been  freely  given 
by  the  whites  to  the  serious  detriment  of  their  own  poor,  in  the  hope 
that  it  would  solve  the  problem.  In  this  school  he  is  taught  by  yoxmg 
men  or  women  of  his  own  color,  race  and  caste.  They  are  to  him  the 
exponents  of  all  that  he  knows  of  culture,  wisdom  and  educational 
refinement.  Their  sentiments  on  any  question  are  of  necessity  his  sen- 
timents and  their  prejudices,  dislikes  and  hatreds  mould  his.  As  a 
rule  these  teachers  have  but  the  merest  elements  of  a liberal  education, 
but  they  know  enough  to  know  that  their  people  stepped  direct  from 
slavery  into  absolute  political  control  of  the  government  of  nearly  a 
dozen  States  of  the  South..  They  know  furthermore  that  in  spite  of 
amendments  to  the  constitution  the  Southern  white  has  forced  them 
steadily  from  this  position  to  a point  at  which,  being  human,  thev 
naturally  love  him  and  teach  all  their  pupils  to  love  him  and  his  tribe. 
The  logic  of  the  above  statement  is  far  more  capable  of  being  under- 


18 


stood  than  the  continued  existence  of  such  a school.  In  short  the  only 
things  gotten  from  the  present  system  of  negro  schools  that  stick  to  the 
pupil  throughout  life  are  an  intense  hatred  for  the  white  race  and  false 
ideals  of  life.  If  this  hatred  stood  alone  it  would  be  bad  enough,  but, 
unfortunately,  it  does  not  stand  alone.  It  is  known  to  every  observing 
man  that  the  present  generation  of  younger  whites  have  little  of  that 
love  and  affection  for  the  negro  which  marked  the  older  generations, 
especially  the  slaveholders.  Regret  this  fact  we  may,  but  deny  it  we 
can  not.  The  result  we  can  only  imagine. 

But  having  graduated  with  him  at  school  let  us  return  and  observe 
ibis  young  negro’s  relations  with  his  family.  Filial  love  is  not,  of 
course,  as  strong  as  parental  love,  at  the  same  time  love  and  respect  for 
the  old  age  of  parents  is  as  fair  a gauge  of  the  standard  of  civilization 
with  any  people  as  it  is  possible  to  obtain.  Measured  by  this  standard, 
i he  young  negro  of  the  South  also  fails.  You  will  all  bear  me  out  that 
there  is  nothing' more  common  in  the  South  than  to  see  some  aged  negro, 
the  parent,  perhaps,  of  a dozen  children,  left  absolutely  helpless  and 
without  support  in  his  old  age  by  the  desertion  of  his  children,  and  this 
evidence  of  a return  to  African  habits  seems  to  be  on  the  increase. 
When  our  “boy”  which  we  have  followed  gets  some  sixteen  or  eighteen 
years  of  age,  unless  his  parents  have  been  of  the  better  class  and  have 
really  trained  him,  his  phylogeny  begins  to  trouble  him  and  he  dreams 
and  yearns  for  some  analogue  of  his  old  African  slave  raid  and  the  yel- 
low “literature”  he  can  now  read  urges  him  on.  A young  savage  by 
instinct,  he  naturally  takes  as  his  ideal  the  swaggering  bully  of  his  own 
color.  He  gradually,  by  theft  and  effort,  gets  up  an  equipment — no 
longer  the  bow,  club  and  spear  of  his  forefathers — but  now  a cheap  pis- 
tol, a pair  of  “knucks”  and  a razor.  He  goes  to  his  first,  “festerval” 
and  the  “progress  of  the  rake”  is  henceforth  fast.  Some  night  at  a 
carousal  he  uses  his  ever  handy  weapons  and  flees,  carrying  with  him 
everything  of  his  parents’  that  he  can  steal.  He  makes  for  some  neigh- 
boring city  where  day  labor  is  in  demand,  and  in  top  boots  and  flannel 
shirt  becomes  a “hand”  for  a few  days  or  weeks  under  some  contractor. 
Working  or  pretending  to  work  by  day,  he  carouses,  drinks  and  gambles 
by  night,  till  for  some  infraction  of  the  law  he  is  off  again.  By  the 
time  he  is  even  fully  grown,  he  is  far  from  home  and  has  almost  forgot- 
ten the  parents  that  gave  him  birth;  he  is  a liar,  a thief  and  a rake;  a 
gambler  and  perhaps  a murderer  or  highwayman : he  fears  neither  God 
nor  man,  and  when  opportunity  offers  is  ready  for  any  crime.  He  is 
in  his  own  vernacular  “a  bad  man,”  and  for  once  he  does  not  lie. 

This  picture  is  not  overdrawn,  nor  is  it  the  case  of  an  isolated  exam- 
ple. It  simply  gives  the  mode  of  formation  and  generic  characteristics 
of  a specific  criminal  class,  which  to-day  numbers  its  tens  of  thousands 
in  the  South.  The  ending  of  such  a life  can  be  imagined ; the  victim  of 


19 


an  enraged  mob  of  white  men  goaded  to  madness,  death  on  the  gallows 
or  a prisoner  in  jail  or  penitentiary  where  tuberculosis  and  syphilis 
vie  with  each  other  to  be  ‘‘first  in  at  the  finish,”  which  is  the  potter’s 
field,  and  all,  even  down  to  the  last,  at  the  white  man’s  expense.  Dim- 
ing his  whole  life  he  has  not  produced  for  the  State  a thousand  dollars, 
and  he  has  cost  it  four-fold  that  sum. 

And  now  to  the  remedy.  Before  another  generation  of  negroes  is 
allowed  to  arise,  worse,  as  we  must  see  than  the  present,  the  people 
of  the  South  must  act.  First  they  must  remove  the  negro  from  politics 
— not,  perhaps,  forever — but  certainly  until  the  proper  time.  When 
such  distant  and  alien  advisers  as  the  Philadelphia  Inquirer  can  see 
what  the  following  statement  indicates,  it  is  blindness  that  prevents  the 
man  on  the  ground  from  seeing.  That  journal,  in  a recent  editorial 
( February  6,  1900),  says:  “We  have  made  many  mistakes  during  the 

course  of  the  century  in  the  United  States.  What  is  called  ‘the  South- 
ern question'  revolves  almost  exclusively  around  the  ballot  box.  The 
freedom  of  the  ballot  box  is  altogether  too  free.”  To  deprive  the 
ignorant  negro  of  the  political  liberty,  which  he  now  uses  for  license, 
will,  by  the  immediate  change  it  will  bring  in  his  relation  to  the  white 
man,  soon  indemnify  him  for  the  seeming  loss.  It  will,  let  us  hope, 
soon  bring  again  the  old  relations  in  feeling  that  existed  between  the 
races  at  the  close  of  the  war.  If  the  change  is  long  delayed,  however, 
it  will  come  too  late;  the  young  whites  of  the  South,  more  familiar  with 
the  “new  issue”  than  the  old,  have  as  we  have  seen  but  little  of  that 
sympathetic  feeling  for  the  race  that  their  fathers  had.  The  negro  is  to 
them  a political  menace  only ; they  have  no  cause  to  love  him  and  in 
spite  of  their  traditions  they  are  beginning  to  hate  him.  It  were  bet- 
ter for  both  races  that  this  should  be  changed  at  the  first  possible 
moment. 

Secondly.  The  negro  must  be  educated  along  a new  line.  There 
seems  to  lie  abroad  the  idea  that  this  determination  to  change  the  method 
is  prompted  by  a desire  to  decrease  the  negro’s  education.  Xo thing 

could  be  further  from  the  truth,  as  these  figures  will  show. 

At  the  close  of  that  period  of  destruction,  which  in  satire  only  can  be 
called  the  period  of  “reconstruction,”  each  State  of  the  South  with  an 
empty  treasury,  faced  an  average  debt  of  $34,000,000,  as  against  an 
average  debt  of  $7,000,000  existing  at  the.  close  of  the  war.  Helpless 
to  avert  it,  the  white  people  of  the  South  had  seen  the  negro  put  this 
increased  burden  upon  them,  and  yet  history  shows  not  even  an  attempt 
at  retaliation.  They  soon  also  faced  the  heaviest  waf  indemnity,  in  the 
shape  of  a pension  roll,  that  was  ever  placed  upon  a conquered  people, 
and  vet,  in  the  vain  hope  that  education  would  lift  the  negro  to  the 
measure  of  his  new-  functions,  they  paid  out  for  him  millions  upon  mil- 
lions of  dollars.  While  the  negro  paid  into  the  school  fund  only  one- 


20 


thirtieth  of  the  whole,  they  expended  in  his  uplifting,  nearly  one-half 
that  they  could  raise.  Does  this  look  as  if  there  existed  in  the  South 
any  objection  to  the  education  of  the  negro?  They  could  have  stopped 
at  any  time,  and  yet  hoping  against  hope,  they  stuck  to  their  efforts 
through  good  and  bad  for  nearly  a quarter  of  a century,  and  they  see 
as  a result,  nothing — or  worse,  for  ignorance,  pauperism  and  crime  are 
worse  than  at  the  close  of  the  war.  The  South  is  therefore  going  to 
change  its  method  of  negro  education.  Already  the  voice  of  warning  is 
sounded  by  the  Superintendent  of  Education  in  one  of  the  Southern 
States,*  and  the  cry  of  dissatisfaction  is  heard  on  every  hand. 

I believe  they  erred  in  this  wise:  The  people  of  the  South  are 

instinctively  an  intensely  political  people.  Looking  naturally  along 
lines  political  the  white  man  of  the  South  tried  to  educate  the  negro, 
already  cursed  with  the  ballot,  to  use  it  more  intelligently.  They 
gauged  the  needs  of  the  negro  by  the  experience  of  white  races,  and,  as 
a result,  they  have  failed,  and  they  will  continue  to  fail  so  long  as  they 
attempt  to  estimate  the  needs  of  the  negro  race  by  the  experience  of  the 
white.  The  phylogenies  of  the  two  races  are  so  divergent  that  the 
results  of  experience  with  one  are  not  safely  applicable  to  the  problems 
of  the  other. 

But  we  all  know  that  we  had  a good  negro  in  this  country  once,  and 
that  was  in  slave  times.  This  was  the  salient  feature  of  slavery- — an 
inferior  race  about  as  moral  as  the  higher.  But  the  masters  knew  the 
slave  in  those  days.  Generations  of  experience  with  him  in  all  types 
had  long  since  shown  him  that  a little  steady  force  applied  in  childhood 
would  guide  him  aright,  and  that  the  adult  would  be  a respectful  and 
respectable,  obedient  and  faithful  servant.  But  he  knew  him  well 
enough  to  know  that  underneath  this  thin  veneer  of  decent  life  and  man- 
ners was  the  nature  of  a savage,  which  had  to  be  shaped  aright  while 
the  cells  were  still  soft  in  youth,  or  it  were  useless  to  try.  The  training 
of  the  child  was  the  all.  Let  us  consider  the  training  of  negro  children 
in  slave  time  and  now — what  is  the  difference?  In  the  amount  of 
effort,  in  the  amount  of  time  and  in  the  amount  of  money  devoted  to 
the  training  of  childhood  the  negro  child  of  to-day  has  infinitely  more 
than  any  slave  child  ever  dreamed  of,  and  yet  this  expenditure  is  devel- 
oping criminals,  where  seeming  indifference  developed  morality.  Where 
is  the  key  to  this  enigma  ? It  lies  in  one  fact,  which  utilized,  will  solve 
all  our  troubles  in  the  South,  for  we  have  done  everything,  “except  the 
one  thing  needful.”  The  training  of  the  negro  is  now  in  the  hands  of 
the  negro,  and  before  it  was  in  the  hands  of  the  whites.  Put  the  train- 
ing of  this  foundling  of  the  State  into  the  hands  of  those  who  hope  ulti- 
mately to  get  back  the  pay  for  his  keep,  and  self-interest  will  see  to  it 


Report  of  Superintendent  of  Education  of  Virginia,  1899. 


21 


that  he  becomes  able  to  pay.  We  took  the  cannibal  and  made  a man  of 
him,  and  we  did  it  because  our  grandfathers  and  grandmothers  were  not 
ashamed  to  give  themselves  to  his  guidance.  There  are  in  the  South 
to-day  the  same  people,  and  in  this  day  of  national  peril,  for  it  is 
national,  as  hard  as  it  will  be  at  first,  they  will  not  be  found  wanting. 
In  the  old  days  it  was  the  ambition  of  the  young  negroes  to  become  the 
best  woodcutters  and  the  best  cradlers,  etc.,  on  the  plantation.  This 
ambition  was  attainable;  they  rose  to  its  demands,  and  were  content 
and  happy.  With  a race  history,  if  we  exclude  their  slave  days,  which 
is  in  an  unbroken  line  of  savagery  from  beyond  the  dawn  of  history  to 
the  present,  and  with  poverty  now  as  their  portion,  we  are  attempting 
to  make  of  them  “ladies”  and  “gentlemen.” 

These  ambitions  are  absolutely  unattainable  under  present  conditions, 
and  the  result  is  a disappointed,  soured  and  vindictive  generation.  The 
present  school  system  of  the  South  is  but  a “forcing-bed”  for  racial 
hatred  and  antagonism.  I do  not  harbor  any  antipathy  to  the  negro 
school  teacher — I simply  deny  his  capacity  for  the  task  in  question. 

The  task  is  to  make  of  the  next  generation  of  negroes  in  the  South 
honest,  law-abiding  laborers  and  artisans,  with  an  ambition  for  the 
respect  of  the  better  class  of  their  own  people  and  of  the  whites.  It  is, 
moreover,  our  task  to  do  away  forever  with  the  idea  in  the  present  gen- 
eration of  the  negro  that  a ludicrous  pinchbeck  imitation  of  the  not 
altogether  perfect  manners  of  the  whites  is  all  that  is  necessary  to  be 
admired  and  respected.  In  other  words,  our  task  is  to  substitute  new, 
higher,  and,  most  important  of  all,  attainable  ideals. 

How  this  can  best  be  done  I am  not  fully  prepared  to  say,  but  if  we 
will  remember  that  the  discipline  of  the  whites  in  the  army,  applied  to 
the  adult  negro,  gave  the  much-boasted  negro  “regular,”  and  that  the 
discipline  of  the  whites  gave  the  respectable  negroes  of  to-day  and  all 
days  behind  us — we  can  not  go  wrong  as  to  the  principle.  In  working 
out  this  problem  we  need  not  look  for  external  soxirces  of  help.  It  is 
to  be  fought  out  here  in  the  South  and  by  the  people  of  this  section 
alone.  The  colonization  or  emigration  of  the  negro  is  impossible,  unless 
forced,  for  the  parasite,  however  much  he  may  hate,  never  leaves  his 
host.  You  may  hear  the  periodic  cry  of  Southern  hatred  and  Southern 
outrage,  but  the  door  has  been  open  for  thirty  years,  and  he  is  still  here, 
and  here  he  will  remain.  He  may  go  to  the  North  temporarily  for  high 
wages,  but  in  spite  of  “outrage”  he  always  returns. 

There  is  another  emigration,  however,  which  unfortunately  may  solve 
the  problem  for  us.  I refer  to  the  emigration  of  the  whites  from  the 
South.  Being  a people  of  great  fecundity,  there  has  always  been  an 
overflow  of  population  from  the  South.  Before  the  war,  this  was  chiefly 
the  poorer  non-slave-holding-“po’  white  trash”  class ; but  now  there  is 
a reversal  of  this  in  kind.  Since  the  war  there  has  been  a slow,  but 


steady  emigration  from  the  South  to  the  North  and  West,  and  now  it  is 
the  son  of  the  slave  owner,  the  college  man,  that  is  going.  In  his 
adopted  home  he  is  giving  the  people  a taste  of  a competition  they  had 
not  looked  for,  hut  he  is  of  little  service  to  the  South.  Why  did  these 
people  go  from  the  South  ? In  earlier  days  the  white  laborers  went  to 
escape  the  competition  of  slave  labor ; in  late  days  they  leave  to  escape 
the  impending  savagery  of  the  black;  with  the  lowering  of  all  classes 
which  it  implies.  Born  and  reared  in  the  heart  of  the  South,  I can 
now,  from  the  vantage  ground  of  a border  State,  overlook  the  whole 
field,  and  I tell  you  now,  that  unless  a brake  is  placed  upon  the  natural 
ontogeny  of  this  savage,  the  South  will  be  unhabitable  for  the  white. 
The  result  will  be  that  the  better  class  will  leave  and  the  lower  classes, 
made  savage  by  the  growing  savagery  of  their  surroundings,  will  alone 
be  left. 

One  of  two  things  then  may  be  expected,  unless  a remedy  be  found. 
Some  race  question  will  arise  which  will  stir  the  passions  and  there 
will  come  a struggle,  a day  of  judgment,  for  folly  piled  upon  folly.  As 
even  the  lower  classes  of  the  South  are  of  pure  Saxon  blood,  the  chroni- 
cles of  their  Saxon  ancestors  will  be  humane  reading  compared  with  the 
records  of  that  day,  but  if  it  comes  before  the  complete  degradation  of 
the  whites  of  the  South,  it  will  put  an  end  to  the  negro  problem,  because 
it  will  be  the  end  of  the  negro. 

Less  likely,  but  more  to  be  deplored,  will  be  the  other.  The  majority 
of  the  whites  will  leave,  and  then,  as  some  narcotic  which  lulls  to  insen- 
sibility the  vital  centres,  ere  it  destroys  them,  so  I am  afraid  the  negro 
will  exterminate  the  last  remaining  whites  of  the  black  belt,  first  by 
political  mastery,  then  degeneration  and  apathy  and  then  miscegenation. 
But  if  miscegenation  does  ever  come,  it  will  be  the  first  time  in  the 
history  of  man  that  a Teutonic  stock  has  so  fallen.  The  Latin  races 
naturally  mingle  their  blood  with  any  race  they  touch,  but  the  Teutonic 
roots  never. 

The  South  African  Boer  stands  unpolluted  after  nearly  three  cen- 
turies of  contact,  but  savagery  around  him  has  not  added  to  his  refine- 
ment or  worked  otherwise  for  his  well  being. 

It  may  be  said  that  although  Hayti  and  San  Domingo  are  gone,  and 
Martinique  may  be  expected  to  follow,  these  are  small  insular  areas 
where  the  return  to  savagery  must  be  total  or  none,  and  these  things 
can  never  happen  in  this  land  of  the  free  and  home  of  the  brava  In 
this  you  are  mistaken,  for  there  are  now  points,  as  yet  mere  points,  on 
the  Carolina  coast,  on  the  Gulf  coast,  and  in  the  “Delta,”  where  thingB 
are  almost  as  bad  as  in  Hayti,  and  around  these  points  the  whites  are 
leaving;  and  this  is  the  great  danger;  the  danger  for  the  negro;  the 
whites  will  leave  as  increasing  savagery  comes. 

In  these  sections,  now  small,  but  growing,  the  political  debauchery 


23 


and  financial  imbecility  which  we  saw  in  “reconstruction”  times  is 
coming  (see  eastern  North  Carolina)  and  as  no  State  will  be  found 
which  will  long  harbor  within  its  borders  a “shoe-string  district”  which 
is  such  a blot  upon  its  escutcheon  and  a tax  upon  its  resources,  there 
will  be  a division,  an  extrusion.  On  the  floor  of  the  Senate  the  repre- 
sentative of  these  Liberian  abortions  will,  under  the  constitution,  nullify 
the  votes  of  the  best  of  the  States  of  this  Union  and  then — what! 

In  conclusion : I have  endeavored  to  show  that  everything  points  to 
the  fact  that  the  phylogeny  of  the  negro  is  carrying  him  back  to  bar- 
barism, to  show  that  the  temporary  elevation  produced  by  the  discipline 
of  slavery  is  not  being  maintained  by  the  efforts  we  have  made  at  com- 
mon school  education, _ in  the  hands  of  his  own  race,  and  that  we  must 
at  once,  if  we  would  save  the  negro  and  the  South,  try  something  else. 
I would  finally  urge  that  we  try  henceforth  an  education  of  trade  or 
industrial  type,  given  at  the  hands  of  well-chosen  white  teachers,  who 
will  teach  him  to  respect,  to  obey  and  to  work.  Under  this,  if  experience 
be  not  fallacious — he  will  improve  in  morality,  in  character,  and  in 
capacity  as  a taxpayer.  Then  and  not  till  then,  will  the  franchise 
become  for  him  a reality  and  the  “Jim  Crow  car”  a memory. 


